Talk:Manitoba/GA1

GA Review

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Firstly, let me say that a good job has been done with this article, and in my view only a few changes need to be made to get it to GA standard. I'll group the issues by GA criteria:

1. Well-written:
   • Mostly well written, although there are still a few choppy sections, for instance the "Government" and "Military" sections, that I feel could be reworded.

   •  Done, I think...feel free to take a look. Nikkimaria (talk) 15:08, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

   • Per MOS:CONVERSIONS, metric measurements should be followed in parenthesis by imperial measurements.

   • I've done most of this, but do you feel that the temperature table should be converted? If so, how best could we do this? Nikkimaria (talk) 01:15, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
     • I'd suggest trying out Template:Convert, which has all the conversions built straight in, including °C to °F. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 10:27, 31 May 2009 (UTC).
       • That template yields 17 °C (63 °F)/7 °C (45 °F) for the first line - is there any way to get 17/7 (63/45 °F) without converting it by hand? Nikkimaria (talk) 14:41, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
         • Hmm, I played a bit with the template but couldn't get it to display a range satisfactorily. Maybe you should just subst it in and then adjust the formatting by hand. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 11:55, 1 June 2009 (UTC).
   •  Done

   • The section "1950 to present" ought to be rewritten, as it jumps from events in 1950, to 1990, and then back to 1969.

   •  Done

   • In the paragraph of the demographics section, a hyphen is used where an em dash would be more appropriate, to my mind.

   •  Done

   • Per MOS:PAIC, inline citations ought to be placed after a full stop. Some sections, such as the "Economy" section, inconsistently have citations before a full stop.

   •  Done

   • The "Municipalities" section looks a bit lonely down there, and given the lack of information in it, perhaps consider integrating it into the demographics or geography sections.

   •  Done

1. Factually accurate and verifiable:
   • The contents of citation 8 does not seem to support the sentence it's against, namely, the part about uninhabited islands and the number of islands.

   •  Done

   • The last three paragraphs of the "climate" section, which discuss the Koppen classification of various parts of the province, are not adequately cited. While the effects of each type are referenced adequately, there is no cited link between, say, the city of Winnipeg being in the Dfb zone. Citations should be added to support the breakdown of which parts of the province are in which zones (a map may also help here).

   •  Done, but without the map...Nikkimaria (talk) 22:57, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

   • The sentence "Winnipeg was the 4th largest city in Canada by the early 20th century" needs to be cited.

   •  Done - apparently it was actually the third largest at one point. Nikkimaria (talk) 23:49, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

   • The sentence "More recently, many historians have disagreed with Morton's interpretation of the strike and have written considerably different histories of it." is vague. Which historians? What different histories? The sentence "Labor was weakened and divided as a result." is also uncited.

   •  Done

   • The sentence "Portage la Prairie is the North American potato processing capital." needs to be either cited, clarified, or rewritten. Is there an official designation of the "North American potato processing capital"? I would suggest saying rewriting it to say that it's a major centre for potato processing, unless the nickname is particularly widespread.

   •  Done

   • The part about the role of the head of state being merely ceremonial these days (in the "Politics" section) needs to be cited.

   •  Done

   • The last sentence in the "Official languages" section, regarding French being available widely, needs to be cited as well.

   •  Done

   • "The first school in Manitoba was founded in 1812 on the banks of the Red River." needs to be cited, unless reference 101 refers to this, in which case it needs to be rewritten to make this clearer.

   •  Done

   • A quick look on Google Maps would indicate that Manitoba has a very short border with the Northwest Territories. This should be included in the appropriate place in the Geography section.

   •  Done

1. Broad in its coverage:
   • A reference is made to the Franco-Manitobains as being an important group in the province, and then they are barely mentioned again for the rest of the article. Even just a sentence or two concerning this community would be helpful.

   • Sorta  Done Nikkimaria (talk) 22:42, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

   • The section on religion in the "Demographics" section only covers Christian denominations, is there any information on the status of minority religions (Judaism, Islam, etc) that exist in Canada, within Manitoba?

   •  Done

1. Neutral:

The early history section that mentions Louis Riel is too dismissive of Riel's role in forming the province. In Manitoba he is considered the founder of the province. He was elected the leader of the provisional government and was hoping to bring Manitoba into Canadian confederation as a province. The Canadian government under Sir John A. MacDonald attacked the Red River settlement after they democratically elected a government with Riel as the leader. Riel was also elected to the Canadian parliament twice after Manitoba joined Canada, but could not take his seat for fear of being prosecuted for treason. He was not simply driven into exile by General Wolseley. The batallion under Wolseley was intended to bring the Red River territory under English protestant control. It was not just about driving out Riel. The powerful people in Ottawa were not open to the idea of a province under the control of francophone "half-breeds."

This whole issue is obviously somewhat controversial and divisive in Canada as it cuts along religious and linguistic/cultural divides, but the most reliable academic sources (probably even the Sprague one that is cited) uphold the history as I have descibed. These are the basic facts.

An article about Manitoba deserves a little more care and accuracy in its account of Manitoba's founding and its founder.

Aside from the factual issues, the few sentences that describe one of the most interesting moments of North America's history are too hazy and choppy. Even if I had never heard of this rebellion before, I would have a lot of questions about the cause and effects in these events. It doesn't need to be longer, but it should be more focussed.

1. Stable:
   • No issues noted.

1. Illustrated, if possible, by images:
   • All freely available images appear tagged as such, and the fair use images have proper rationales for use.
   • File:Manmap.PNG is a bit of an ugly map though, and even manages to misspell "Saskatchewan". This map should be replaced with a free, SVG equivalent, if possible.

   • The image was removed when the section was transferred to Geography. I'll keep looking for an equivalent. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:47, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

I hope this helps, please feel free to add any additional questions here or on my talk page. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 07:31, 30 May 2009 (UTC).

A tremendous job has been done so far, but there are a couple of other things that jump out at me:

• I'm not that enthusiastic about the dot-point format of the "Professional Sports Teams" section. I really feel that this ought to be converted to prose with a more general heading (like "Sports"). See, for instance, Virginia, for an example of a GA where this is done well.
  •  Done - maybe...take a look. Nikkimaria (talk) 15:38, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
• Reference #27 is broken.
  •  Done
• Is there any particular issue why the "lakes of Manitoba" table is purple, and not standard grey like the other tables in the article? It's not unattractive, but diversions from the standard article style can be confusing for some readers.
  •  Done - it was purple because I borrowed it from the Spanish version (don't know why it's purple there...). Nikkimaria (talk) 15:38, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Once these three are addressed, and pending no further issues, I'll be happy to endorse the article as a GA. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 11:37, 4 June 2009 (UTC).